Emperor: Open Play
Open Play Options Period: There are 3 settings which get cycled to the next; when you click the button to the right. :Bronze Age -> Iron Age -> Steel Age -> Feb 600 BCE is the Bronze Age starting date. Feb 70 BCE is the Iron Age starting date. Feb 900 CE is the Steel Age starting date. Each Age has a standard set of commodities that can be available. Open Play will have all Commodities available for the Age, some only through trade. Campaigns(Historic & Custom) may limit the availability of commodities to suit the designer's purpose. See Emperor: Commodities/ Open Play & Unavailable Table for more information. Difficulty Level: There are 5 settings which get cycled to the next; when you click the button to the right. :Very Easy -> Easy -> Normal -> Hard -> Very Hard -> There is no Briefing Panel, so this is your only means to set it. Assuming you have completed most of the Historical Campaigns then you should know what you are comfortable with. This setting influences most other settings to some degree by increasing or decreasing some numeric probability in the randomization process. Starting funds and cost of placing structures are the most obvious effects. This setting will influence the reaction time of Non-Player City Relations. The harder(i.e. Very Hard) settings will give you less time before they make a decision due to low Favor or recent unfavorable relation change; and higher probability of a bad reaction. The easier(i.e. Very Easy) settings will likely cause cities to react quickly in a more favorable way. 'Normal' will cause cities to take a "wait and see" attitude. If Favor is amended then "no harm" other then hurt feelings, but persistent unfavorable actions or protracted low Favor may cause a bad reaction, eventually. Density of Cities: There are 3 settings which get cycled to the next; when you click the button to the right. :Low -> Medium -> High -> Low usually generates 4~5 cities. Medium usually generates 7~8 cities. High usually generates 11~13 cities. Effectively, the number of cities on the Empire Map; to trade with, become your ally or cause you trouble. The number of cities listed above is the usual range, but may fall outside the range depending of other settings. Difficulty Level, Non-Player Relations and Random Seed being the major influences. Non-Player Relations: There are 5 settings which get cycled to the next; when you click the button to the right. :Peaceful -> Harmless -> Neutral -> Aggressive -> Ferocious -> This influences the starting Favor of the Cities. 'Peaceful' will increase starting Favor enough that most cities will gladly open trade, some may be willing to ally with you. 'Ferocious' will decrease starting Favor making it nearly impossible to open trade early in the game, some cities may become Hostile towards you. Difficulty Level is a major influencing factor in how helpful or troublesome your neighbors can be. Lots of cities will likely compound any problems if your not familiar with the 'City Favor System' of the game. Disaster Frequency: There are 4 settings which get cycled to the next; when you click the button to the right. :None -> Rare -> Occasional -> Frequent -> 'Frequent' can cause disasters to happen every year, sometimes a couple every year. 'Frequent' should be used when you want to test you City Management skills. Of course, some disasters may have no or little effect. Floods need water, Droughts effect a single farm, but Earthquakes can be devastating; causing damage to roads which can go unnoticed for a time. Difficulty Level is a major influencing factor in the severity of the disasters. __NOEDITSECTION__ City Map You can select a city map here, though there is no description, just a name. There are two HTML documents available for download that are useful. Emperor MAPs Explorer is the newest and provides extra details in a simple format. The older HTML document is available at the same website. Maps with a Grand Canal or Great Wall monument are not listed. Some maps were never used in any Missions|Campaigns. You can add custom maps to C:/Sierra/EmperorRotMK/Cities and they should be listed, exceptions being Grand Canal and Great Wall monument maps. See Emperor: Basic Files for more information. The 'Climate Region' of a map will influence agriculture structures. Arid Climates will have fewer options available for food types grown; usually 2 farmed food types, hemp and sometimes Sheds are available. Humid Climates tend to have the most if not all options available. Temperate Climates usually fall between the two extremes. What is not available locally will be available via trade, exceptions are restrictions of the 'Age'. Fish and Game meat require spawn points be enable on the map for local production. Difficulty Level setting influences commodity availability somewhat. Monuments You can choose up to 3 Monuments. Underground Vault, Grand Canal and Great Wall monuments are not available. The Clock Tower is only available in the Steel Age, because it requires Steel. If you cannot produce a commodity locally then it will be made available via trade. Interesting factoid is the PDF incorrectly lists Bronze as the metal needed. It was the historically accurate material; but the timeline puts it in the Steel Age. Just one of the many PDF errors; a nice overview if the reader fact-checks it. Open Play Options (Continued) Random Seed: You can input any text here to generate different variations in building and commodity availability. The Difficulty Level has some influence, the lower it is the more commodities and buildings you will likely have. Some building are map resource dependent. Commodity availability may be made through trade with other cities. Return to Campaign Menu: Navigates towards the Main Menu selections. To the City: Takes you to the city that you just setup. Mission Briefing Open Play is effectively without Goals, but there was a paradox with adding Monuments. The normal goal oriented system would list them as goals and trigger an 'end of mission' script once the monuments were completed. Thus, an additional 'Population Goal'(supposedly unreachable) is added after the 'Monument Goals' in the creation of the 'Custom Mission'. The image to the right shows the difference of adding monuments. Note that Open Play Custom Missions briefing text is blank. :Warning: The use of software, for the following, is legal(since 1970's DOS Debugger and Basic could do it); but be advised that not all software of this type can be trusted. Distributions are sometimes altered with spyware and other nasty stuff. An exploit can turn an Open Play mission into a normal Mission, enabling a valid Scoring report. The software type is used to peek into RAM memory and change values(pook). Often it is considered cheat-ware by gamers. Simply search for the value '300000' and change it to something obtainable, then make a new Save Point. You may want to delete any previous Save Points, after insuring there is no problem loading the new Save Point; so they are not mistakenly loaded. You could share the Save Point, starting a new trend of Custom Mission competitions. Lots easier then the Campaign Creator, yes! Tips Before you press 'To the City' button, record the selections including 'Random Seed'. If the 'Empire Map' city distribution, available building and commodity distribution is not to your liking then you need only change the 'Random Seed'. Any memory lapses would not be a cause for frustration, plus it offers a chance to replay the 'Custom Mission' again if the first attempt was flawed. Category:Emperor basics